Mid-year budget: Focus on job creation — GAWU tells Ofori-Atta

The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) says the government must make provision for sustainable jobs in the agricultural sector ahead of the mid-year budget presentation.

According to the union, the initiatives that have been introduced into the agricultural sector have not been able to create jobs last all year round.

Government has introduced a number of initiatives into the agricultural sector with its major one being the Planting for Food and Jobs. GAWU has however complained about the jobs available under the initiatives saying that they are unable to properly cater for themselves and their families.

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In an interview with Citi Business News, General Secretary for GAWU, Edward Kareweh said in order to improve the agricultural sector and those involved in it government must introduce policies that will result in sustainable jobs.

He said, “We want jobs that will be able to provide livelihoods for the job owners and not jobs that will not always be there that is why we have our economy growing but it’s not delivering the type of jobs that are needed”.

“The jobs that have been created under the planting for food and jobs are not sustainable and therefore if indeed these jobs are created we want those jobs to be transformed into sustainable where the people doing them are secured and enumeration is adequate to meet the persons basic needs, this is what I expect the budget to do”, he added.

The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to present the government’s supplementary budget statement to Parliament on July 29.

The Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (PFMA) Act-921, requires that the Finance Minister presents a Mid-Year Review to parliament six months after the presentation of the main budget for that fiscal year.

Mr. Ofori-Atta is expected to use the opportunity to review some of the key macroeconomic targets announced in the 2019 budget read last year.

Also, the Minister is expected to outline a number of tax measures that should help boost domestic revenue drive after a run of underperformance in the last two to three years.